50 Fun Facts About Ghana

What is the capital and most populous city of Ghana?

Accra, on the Atlantic coast, has a metropolitan population of roughly 4 million and became the colonial capital in 1877, when the British moved their administration there from Cape Coast.

On 6 March 1957 Ghana became the first colony in sub-Saharan Africa to do what?

Achieve sovereignty: at midnight on 6 March 1957 the colony became an independent dominion within the Commonwealth, merging the coastal colony, Ashanti, the Northern Territories and the trust territory to its east into one state.

By what name was Ghana known as a British colony?

Gold Coast: the British colony took its name from the gold trade that drew European traders and forts to the coast from the 15th century; the name Ghana was borrowed at independence from a medieval Sahel empire.

Who led Ghana to independence and served as its first prime minister and president?

Kwame Nkrumah founded the Convention People's Party in 1949 under the slogan 'Self-Government Now', led the country to independence in 1957 and was overthrown by a coup in February 1966.

The title Kaya Maghan, held by rulers of the empire Ghana is named after, is thought to mean what?

Ruler of gold: Kaya Maghan, the Soninke title of the kings of Wagadu, reflected the empire's control of the gold trade between the 3rd and 12th centuries, far to the north-west of modern Ghana.

The black star on Ghana's flag symbolises what?

African emancipation and unity against colonialism: Theodosia Okoh's 1957 design put the black 'lodestar of African freedom' on the gold band; red stands for the blood of those who died for independence and green for its forests and farms.

Which club based in Kumasi is Ghana's most successful, with more than 20 league titles?

Asante Kotoko, founded in Kumasi in 1935, has won the Ghanaian league more than 20 times and the African Cup of Champions Clubs twice, in 1970 and 1983.

Whose goal-line handball denied Ghana a late winner in the 2010 World Cup quarter-finals?

Luis Suárez punched Dominic Adiyiah's header off the line in the last minute of extra time and was sent off; Asamoah Gyan hit the bar with the penalty and Uruguay won the shoot-out 4-2.

How many Africa Cup of Nations titles did Ghana win between 1963 and 1982?

Four: Ghana won in 1963, 1965, 1978 and 1982, the last on penalties against hosts Libya in Tripoli, and later lost finals in 1992, 2010 and 2015.

Which farmer is credited with founding Ghana's cocoa industry at Mampong, Akuapem, in 1879?

Tetteh Quarshie, a blacksmith, brought cocoa seeds back from the Spanish island of Fernando Po (Bioko) and in 1879 planted the first successful farm at Mampong in the Akuapem hills, founding Ghana's cocoa industry.

Ghana overtook which country to become the continent's largest gold producer?

It produced about 140 tonnes in 2019, seventh in the world.

Lake Volta, formed by the Akosombo Dam, holds what world record?

Largest reservoir by surface area: Lake Volta covers about 8,502 square kilometres, some 3.6% of Ghana's land, and ranks third among reservoirs by volume; the Akosombo Dam was completed in 1965.

The Asante Golden Stool is said to have fallen from the sky onto the lap of which first king?

Osei Tutu, the first Asantehene, is said to have received the stool from the sky through the priest Okomfo Anokye around 1701, the act that bound the chiefdoms around Kumasi into the Asante Empire.

The 1900 War of the Golden Stool began after Governor Frederick Hodgson demanded what?

To sit on it: Hodgson's demand to sit on the sacred stool, which even Asante kings never sat on, so outraged the Asante that they rose in the 1900 war and besieged the British fort in Kumasi.

Yaa Asantewaa, who commanded the Asante in the 1900 war against the British, held which position?

Queen Mother of Ejisu: Yaa Asantewaa, about 60 years old, rallied the chiefs when they hesitated, led the siege of the British fort in Kumasi, and was exiled to the Seychelles after the defeat, dying there in 1921.

Elmina Castle, begun by the Portuguese in 1482, holds what distinction?

Oldest European building in sub-Saharan Africa: the Portuguese built São Jorge da Mina from 1482 to guard the gold trade; the Dutch seized it in 1637 and held it until selling it to Britain in 1872.

Which nation's company first built Cape Coast Castle as a timber fort in 1653?

Sweden: the Swedish Africa Company raised the first timber fort in 1653 and named it Carolusborg after King Charles X Gustav; the Danes, Dutch and finally the British (1664) later held the site.

By Asante tradition, kente cloth originated in which town?

Bonwire, a village near Kumasi, is the traditional home of Asante kente weaving; its narrow strips, woven on horizontal looms and sewn together, were once reserved for the Asantehene and his court.

Adinkra symbols, printed on cloth once reserved for royalty, each derive their meaning from what?

A proverb or historical event: each adinkra symbol encodes a saying or concept, such as Gye Nyame ('except for God') or Sankofa, the bird looking back to fetch what was left behind.

Ghanaian diplomat Kofi Annan served as which secretary-general of the United Nations?

Seventh: Kofi Annan followed Boutros Boutros-Ghali in 1997, served two terms to the end of 2006 and shared the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize with the United Nations.

Jerry Rawlings, who ruled Ghana in 1979 and from 1981 to 2001, came to power holding what military rank?

Flight lieutenant: Rawlings kept the junior air force rank through both his coups (1979 and 1981) and his years as head of state, before winning the 1992 election that launched the Fourth Republic.

The 1966 coup that overthrew Ghana's first president was code-named what?

Operation Cold Chop: on 24 February 1966, while the president was abroad en route to Hanoi, Colonel Emmanuel Kotoka and Major Akwasi Afrifa led army units into the capital and set up the National Liberation Council.

Ghana's currency is called what?

Cedi: the name comes from a local word for the cowry shell, once used as money; the currency was redenominated in 2007, with 10,000 old cedis becoming one Ghana cedi.

Ghana lies on which body of water?

Gulf of Guinea: Ghana's roughly 540-kilometre coastline faces this arm of the Atlantic, while on land it borders Ivory Coast to the west, Burkina Faso to the north and Togo to the east.

The Prime Meridian passes through which Ghanaian port town, near the capital?

Tema, Ghana's main container port about 25 kilometres east of the capital, sits almost exactly on 0° longitude, which makes Ghana the nearest country to the point where the Prime Meridian meets the Equator.

Which is the largest ethnic group in Ghana, at about 47% of the population?

The Asante are the best-known Akan people; the Mole-Dagbani are second at about 18%.

Roughly what share of Ghanaians are Christian?

71%: the 2021 census counted 71.3% of Ghanaians as Christian, with Pentecostal and charismatic churches the largest bloc, and about a fifth as Muslim, concentrated in the north.

Highlife, Ghana's guitar-and-horn dance genre, first emerged in which part of the country?

Ghana's coastal cities: highlife grew out of brass-band and palm-wine music around Cape Coast, Sekondi and the capital in the early 20th century, and E. T. Mensah's dance bands carried it across the region in the 1950s.

The trickster Anansi of Ghanaian folklore is most commonly depicted as what creature?

A spider: Anansi's name is the Twi word for spider, and his tales crossed the Atlantic with enslaved people to become the Anancy stories of Jamaica and the wider Caribbean.

Ghana's highest point, Mount Afadja, rises to about what height?

885 m: Mount Afadja, in the Agumatsa hills of the Akwapim-Togo Range near the Togo border in the Volta Region, is modest by continental standards but the highest point in Ghana.

Kakum National Park's best-known attraction is what?

A canopy walkway: Kakum's 350-metre walkway, opened in 1995, hangs about 40 metres above the forest floor on a chain of seven suspension bridges between treetops.

Wli Falls in Ghana's Volta Region is described as the largest waterfall in which region?

West Africa: Wli (Agumatsa) Falls, near Hohoe in the Volta Region, drops about 80 metres in its upper and lower falls and is commonly called the highest waterfall in West Africa.

Ghana became a republic within the Commonwealth on 1 July of which year?

1960: after an April 1960 referendum approved the republican constitution and elected its first president over J. B. Danquah, Ghana became a republic within the Commonwealth on 1 July 1960.

The 1947 call for 'self-government within the shortest possible time' came from a convention led by which group?

The Big Six: the leaders of the convention founded in August 1947, all detained together after the 1948 riots in the capital, appear together on Ghana's banknotes.

Ghana's population as reported by the UN in 2024 was roughly how many?

34.6 million: the UN's 2024 estimate put Ghana just under 35 million, up from the 8.6 million counted in the 1970 census, with a median age of about 21.

Ghana in 1957 unified the coastal colony, Ashanti, the Northern Territories and what else?

British Togoland: the UN trust territory voted 58% for union in a May 1956 plebiscite, carried by its northern districts over the opposition of the Ewe south, and joined at independence.

The Asante Empire, centred on Kumasi, lasted from 1701 until which year?

1902: after the 1896 occupation and the 1900 uprising, Britain annexed Asante as a crown colony with effect from 1 January 1902, administering it separately until the 1957 union.

The 1481 commission to build Elmina Castle came from which king?

John II of Portugal, seeking to secure the gold trade, sent Diogo de Azambuja with a fleet and prefabricated stone in 1481-82 to build São Jorge da Mina, the castle later known as Elmina.

The 2000 election of John Kufuor marked the first time under the Fourth Republic that what happened?

Power passed between elected leaders: Kufuor's NPP victory over the governing NDC's Atta Mills, after a run-off, was the first change of ruling party by the ballot since the 1992 constitution; Kufuor served two terms and handed over in 2009.

The staple rice dish waakye combines rice with what?

Beans: waakye is rice cooked together with beans (often black-eyed peas), coloured reddish-brown by dried sorghum leaves or millet stalks and sold with shito, gari and boiled egg.

Ghana's Kofi Annan International Training Centre reflects the country's long involvement in what?

UN peacekeeping: Ghana has sent troops to UN missions since the Congo crisis of the early 1960s and is consistently among the top contributors; the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre opened in the capital in 2004.

Ghana is credited as the first sub-Saharan country to achieve which Millennium Development Goal?

Halving poverty: Ghana cut the share of its people living in poverty from about 52% in 1991 to about 24% by 2012, meeting the first Millennium Development Goal ahead of the 2015 deadline.

In 2013 the Bank of Ghana began circulating which foreign currency alongside the cedi for trade?

It reflected the growth of trade with China.

Ghana's record football win, 13-2 in 1965, came against which country?

Kenya: Ghana's 13-2 win in 1965 came under coach Charles Kumi Gyamfi, who also led the team to the 1963 and 1965 continental titles.

In 1962 Ghana hosted and drew 3-3 with which European club, then champions of Spain?

Real Madrid, European champions five times by then, drew 3-3 with Ghana in the capital in August 1962, a result celebrated as a landmark for Ghanaian football.

Ghana's 1967 'new' currency unit was pegged at introduction to what?

Half a pound sterling: the 1967 currency was worth 1.2 of the 1965 units and was set at ten shillings, so two of them bought one pound, or about US$1.40 each at the time.

Which Ghanaian-British architect led the design of Washington's National Museum of African American History and Culture?

David Adjaye, born to Ghanaian parents and knighted in 2017, led the design team for the museum, which opened on the National Mall in 2016 with a bronze-coloured, three-tiered 'corona' inspired by Yoruba sculpture.

The Ewe people of Ghana's Volta Region trace their migration to the Ketu area of which modern country?

Benin: Ewe tradition traces the people from Ketu, a Yoruba town in present-day Benin, westward to the walled city of Notsie in Togo, from which they dispersed into the Volta Region in the 17th century.

Ghana attended the 1961 Belgrade conference that founded which international grouping?

Non-Aligned Movement: Ghana's first president was among the founding leaders at the 1961 Belgrade summit with Tito, Nehru, Nasser and Sukarno; Ghana was also a founding member of the Organisation of African Unity in 1963.

Ghana produced roughly how much gold in 2019, placing it in the world's top ten?

The metal gave the colony its old name and Ghana its rank as Africa's top producer.